Ghana opposition rejects bid to change election date

ACCRA - Ghana's opposition presidential candidate John Mahama has opposed a proposal for the general elections to be brought forward to November from December this year.

The Electoral Commission said the proposal, initially put forward by the political parties, aimed to allow sufficient time for the commission to effectively manage its operations, particularly in the event of a run-off.

However, Mahama, the National Democratic Congress party candidate, said the proposed date change for the general elections was not feasible.

“We do not believe that this is being proposed in good faith," Mahama said at the weekend, accusing the commission of a lack of preparedness.

The former president urged the commission to get its house together to ensure credible polls.

The Seventh-day Adventist Church had also petitioned the commission to move the election day from the regular day of December 7 because it falls on Saturday, its day of worship.

The commission is also considering designating all election days as national holidays to help boost turnout.

It is unclear if the new proposals are linked to the church's petition.

Meanwhile, Senegal's Minister of Business and Trade, Abdou Karim Fofana, who is also the government spokesman, has defended the President Macky Sall from accusations that he postponed the elections as a strategy to cling onto power.

In an interview from the capital Dakar, Fofana presented the election delay as a necessary and altruistic move, coming from a "moral obligation to stay and solve this problem" because according to the constitution, "he (President Sall) is the guarantor of the good functioning of the institutions."